Will Terrence Howard Rap On 'Empire'? Lucious' Own Career Needs Some More Screentime

Taking into account the fact that Fox's Empire is a show about the music industry, you kind of expect everyone to break into song at some point (though not quite the same way they do on Glee). So far, the show has done a very good job of weaving in its musical numbers and making them feel completely organic to the story. Of course someone is going to sit and play the grand piano in the room! We've so far gotten a tiny little snippet of Terrence Howard performing on Empire as Lucious Lyon, but can we expect more?

For anyone completely unfamiliar with Howard's music career, yes, he does in fact have one — so the idea of him performing on Empire is not a stretch. He released his debut album in 2008, Shine Through It, and its reviews say it includes a mix of genres. Howard also starred in Hustle & Flow, in which he played rapper Djay and recorded all of his own songs. One of them, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," won the Academy Award that year for Best Original Song.

Howard is by no means new to the music world, then. We've already seen a little bit of what Lucious was like during the heyday of his musical career, with a very quick glimpse at one of his music videos. We know Lucious had a long and successful music career, which is how he's been able to build his empire. Might we see more of his rapper glory days? Or could he team up with his son Hakeem for a duet of some kind?

As excited as we might be to see Howard's abilities, Lucious' musical career isn't the focus of the show. It's all about sons Jamal and Hakeem, really (and Andre, but he's informed us that he cannot sing). There is an Empire soundtrack — which you can download or stream — but it's largely full of tracks by Hakeem (played by real-life rapper Bryshere Gray, aka Yazz the Greaest) and Jamal (played by singer/actor Jussie Smollett).

However, there is one song performed by Howard, "What the DJ Spins," which you can snag from iTunes for $1.29. Columbia Records is doing the same thing that Glee did, where they release the music from the show after the episode has aired.

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Wednesday's new episode, "False Impressions," will include flashbacks and it's hinted that we'll get to see Lucious perform again (no word yet on if Cookie is in or out of jail for this flashback, because that's really what we want to know).

It's a safe bet to assume that we'll get more of Lucious' songs in the future, but Empire hasn't released any details yet. So whether we'll get a big, show-stopping musical number from Howard's Lucious remains to be seen, but it would be an awesome idea for May Sweeps.